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Square Enix has angered fans of the Final Fantasy series by announcing that the Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released in episodic installments (archive.is):
It seems that Square Enix has unleashed a torrent of anger over the episodic nature [archive.is] of Final Fantasy VII Remake, so much so that producer Yoshinori Kitase has had to step in.
In a new blog post over on their site, Kitase has done his best to give his take on the situation. As he says, "One thing that we wanted to be clear about during this weekend to accompany the new trailer was the scale of this project. We wanted to tell you this now and not in the future so that you'd share our vision for what we want to deliver. The biggest reason why we haven't done a remake until now is because it's a massive undertaking to reconstruct Final Fantasy VII from the ground up with the current technology. Producing a proper HD remake of Final Fantasy VII that maintains the same feeling of density of the original would result in a volume of content that couldn't possibly fit into one installment."
"We've seen everyone's comments and reactions to the news that Final Fantasy VII Remake will be a multi-part series and many have speculated correctly as to the reason why we have made this decision. If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake installment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of Final Fantasy VII. We knew none of you would have wanted that."
The thing here though is that this is not really a remake of the original PSone game, this is a whole new and different game. In that sense, building the old game's narrative and setting would indeed become a huge undertaking with this new functional approach.
The argument here is that nobody asked Square Enix to change the game like this in the first place.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gman003 on Monday December 14 2015, @10:04PM
A major factor is just the PS1 being significantly more popular than the SNES - about twice as popular by console sales. So a lot more people played VII, VIII and IX than IV and VI (and especially V, which never saw a release on the original console outside Japan). Of those three PS1 titles, VII is generally considered the best, and it's far and away the most enduring game of the entire franchise. Not necessarily the best (different elements of the series peaked at different times... the writing, art direction and music peaked with VI, the gameplay and character design peaked with VII), but it's the most popular.
That enduring fanbase for it became self-sustaining once it got sequels/prequels - more than any other Final Fantasy Game. You've got Crisis Core (the PSP prequel), Dirge of Cerberus (the PS2 sequel), and Advent Children (the movie), plus a pile of Japan-only crap like Before Crisis or Last Order.
At the same time, IV is a small enough game that it can be remade by a relatively small team, and because it's not the crown jewel of the franchise, it doesn't need the remake to be a big AAA blockbuster. So IV has seen numerous ports and remakes, plus a "sequel" of little worth. Even the bigger and more popular VI has had several ports, and recently a terrible "HD remake" for mobile and PC. So they've gotten attention - arguably more than FFVII proper has.
That said, I would look forward to a full-fledged, modern-quality remake of VI just as much as one of VII. Which isn't *that* much, because of Square's recent track record, but still...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 14 2015, @10:30PM
No. Remakes are a bad idea. There are three possibilities and all of them are negative. First is that they change something you liked (2D to 3D, character, genre, etc.), and that clouds the rest of your judgment. Second is it ruins your nostalgia for the original item because you are reminded of all the bad stuff you forgotten about. Third is that ruins your nostalgia for the original time because the memories of the new one stomps all over the old one.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gman003 on Tuesday December 15 2015, @12:51AM
I'm going to have to disagree with you on that. A remake can be just as good as, or even better than, the original.
A good remake will fix things that were never part of the artistic vision, but were forced by technical limitations or time/budget constraints. For FFVIIR, this would be like fixing translation issues, or the low-quality samples used in the music (as an Uematsu fan with thirteen different versions of "One-Winged Angel" in my library, I can assure you that the original version is the worst).
A good remake will polish the parts of the original that were not up to the highest bar - "all the bad stuff you forgotten about", as you so eloquently put it. For FFVIIR, this would be like tweaking the encounter rate in the Midgar Slums. That's something I just can't see as being part of anyone's "creative vision" for the game. It's just something that needed to be there to move the plot along that didn't go through as many revisions as everything else.
A good remake will leave alone the things that worked. For FFVIIR this would be things like the Materia system (outside some obvious glitches). It worked perfectly well, and there's nothing that needs to be changed because there's nothing wrong.
A good remake won't change anything without a good reason. FFVII had a lot of just weird stuff that doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the game - the Golden Saucer, the undercover sections, the crossdressing sequence. Anyone remaking the game would be very tempted to cut them or drastically change them, just because there seems to be no reason to keep them in. That's a bad idea - leave them in, leave them all in, unless there's a specific reason to remove it.
There are plenty of good remakes. For example, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (a remake of MGS1 and MGS2 for the Gamecube) is considered by most to be the "definitive" version of Metal Gear Solid. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was practically just a port with enhanced graphics - you could literally push a button to return to the original graphics without even pausing. Black Mesa changed a lot of things from Half-Life - and most of them are for the better.
Now, there are also plenty of bad remakes. Square Enix alone has made dozens. But it is entirely possible for the remake to be superior to the original.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @02:46AM
Two lines stuck out at me.
A good remake will fix things that were never part of the artistic vision, but were forced by technical limitations or time/budget constraints.
A good remake will polish the parts of the original that were not up to the highest bar - "all the bad stuff you forgotten about", as you so eloquently put it.
Two things, the first is that part of the art is working with the medium. Second is that what you consider "needing polish" some people thing is just fine.
For example, I consider the original music that came with many games at the time a feature, not a limit. In addition to being a technical feat in its own to get such sounds out of the audio hardware of the time, my memory gets pinged by those renditions of songs. I have completely failed to recognize songs without those limitations, an example being the cave music in FF7. The original tingy and tinny version instantly makes me recall things, but I've completely not recognized it in other renditions. To me, there is nothing wrong with the music.
Another example is given by the extensive TV Tropes entry on Wooleyisms. Some people hate his translations, other people love them. Is a particular line in a translation a mistake at all? If so, should it be fixed or does it add to the flavor? Should pop culture jokes be updated or left as is? There are those decisions around and more.
Different people like different things. Say they bump the difficulty at the end of the game because one group of people complained about the ease and not feeling epic. Well, then you have a different group complaining it is too hard. Some want fully recorded orchestral pieces, some want the sounds from the time. Some think things are bugs, others think they are features. Some want more secrets and others want it the same. Some like swearing, some don't. Some like flavor descriptions, other like to know what things do. Different strokes for different folks.
Additionally, when I say "all the bad stuff you forgotten about" I am not just referring to technical glitches and the like of pacing due to grinding or simple slow start/ rushed ending or things like Navi bugging you more than you remember or being less helpful since you already know what is going on. But things that are literally unchangeable but still are bad, like a character being whinny or useless until some later story event or a fundamental part of the mechanic of the game like Paladin's Quest's lack of MP. Importantly, changing those leads to a completely different game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @11:54PM
Paladin's Quest's lack of MP
I actually liked that there was no MP. IIRC in the game magic is tied to your lifeforce then it makes more sense that it would affect your health instead of some arbitrary power that can run out like some sort of "charged" enchantment.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 14 2015, @11:22PM
According to my wife who loves Anime. It would be, because of "Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children", the Movie. Apparently chicks dig Cloud. She also loved Kingdom Hearts. Probably the only game she ever really got into and finished.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"